White Privilege - Tim Wise

            I really enjoyed this video. I think Tim Wise is a very dynamic speaker, and of the three statements about white privilege that we have read/watched, this one was my favorite. I think I liked it so much because Wise’s examples were so vivid and obvious that he brought you to the point of acknowledging the undeniable presence of white privilege without directly saying it (although he did directly say it; it was his examples that were so compelling).

            I liked when Wise discussed the colorblind model, and pointed out that the problem with this is that if we can’t acknowledge color, then we can’t understand or acknowledge the consequences of color. This parallels the articles we read, and I agree that the problem can’t be dealt with unless we first acknowledge that there is a problem. He was very blunt about how we are afraid to mention color because it violates the “we’re all in this together model,” but Wise argues that we are not actually all in this together as we wish to believe. Even though there are exceptions to the rule, the rule is that people of color are underprivileged (statistics don’t lie). And if “underprivileged” exists, than so does “overprivileged,” although we don’t ever throw around that word. But the fact is, where some people have less than they should, other people have more than they should - namely, white people; it is not the level playing field that we would like to believe it is.

            My favorite part of this talk was the part about the pill. Wise presents this scenario of a magic pill that would turn you either white or black around people you don’t know. He argues that, if we are honest with ourselves, we would all want the white pill, because all of us know that white privilege exists, whether we want to admit it or not. It’s there, and real change cannot take place until we are willing to admit it.